Close Encounters
by rajanakhi
Summary: It's never good when a ghost decides your personality needs some work.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I claim no ownership of the characters/world of Gravitation.

It was customary for Shuichi to awaken well before Yuki even stirred, darting about the apartment as he prepared for another day of work. Yuki would finally drag himself out of bed just before Shuichi would leave, get some coffee and start his own work.

Kind of.

Truth be told, Yuki generally awoke around the same time as his brat. But he never made that fact known because mornings, he had discovered earlier on in his life, were when he tended to be most honest—particularly about his feelings.

So, he feigned sleep until he heard Shuichi start up the coffee pot. At this point, he would let himself slide out of the bed to slip on slippers and—if need be—clothes. He avoided saying too much if anything to Shuichi, mumbling nonsensical responses when Shuichi wished him a good day or asked around what time dinner was supposed to be.

Today was just like any other day. Yuki stood in the mouth of the hallway watching with muted amusement as Shuichi shoved both necessary and unnecessary items into that annoyingly orange backpack. Not wanting to seem like he was waiting around to tell Shuichi to have a good day or anything cheesy like that, Yuki retreated to his study, opening the computer and pulling up a document more for show than anything else at that hour of the morning.

Just as he suspected not two minutes later Shuichi popped his head into the room.

"Have a nice day, Yuki!" Shuichi called from the doorway, bounding over—shoes and all—to give his boyfriend a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Yeah, yeah. Get to work brat." Yuki muttered, waving Shuichi off. He heard the door clicked shut and Yuki was finally able to relax into his chair and his silence.

"At the very least you could give him a kiss." A voice chided from the corner.

Had Yuki been anyone else—say Shuichi—he would have screamed, run off or done any manner of silly things. As it was he only jumped a little and turned around with an annoyed curse.

"Who—" Yuki stopped himself short as he took in the…thing before him. It looked more or less like a human—a boy, probably around 20 or so. Only he was gray. And kind of see-through.

"Maybe 'what are you?' would be a better questioned." Yuki mused out loud.

"Me?" The figure seemed inclined to answer the spoken thought at any cost and pondered for a moment. "I'm human."

Yuki raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

"Fine." The ghost-thing said in exasperation. "I _was_ human. Now I'm not entirely sure. One minute I was dead the next I was…this. I kind of just float along and watch the lives of humans, butting in when I find it necessary. And my name is Shen, thanks for asking."

Yuki didn't know what to think. Weren't even the nicest ghosts supposed to be creepy and a little threatening. Not to mention invisible. Theoretically.

"Shen?" He repeated, finally finding something decently intelligent and not completely ignorant to say. "Couldn't you have picked a more threatening name when you died? Or gone to haunt some creepy bridge and earned a new name for yourself?"

"Like what?" Shen asked, rolling around in the air.

Yuki watched this for a moment and then shook his head. "I don't know—Like Bloody Mary! Or the Jersey Devil, something catchy but creepy at the same time—would you stop that?" Yuki all but shouted, getting annoyed by all the looping dives Shen had started to do around—and sometimes even through Yuki.

"Sorry." The spirit came to a halt. "But why would I want a name like either of those? They're ghastly. Besides, isn't the Jersey Devil some kind of creature?"

Yuki sighed, seeing that he was fighting a losing battle. God help the world if Shuichi ever became a ghost.

"Right. So you're some sort of nosy little ghost-demon with no impressive death story or anything like that and a really lame name. Basically just another annoyance. Wonderful. Now get out." Yuki said, turning back around in hopes that ignoring the thing would make it go away.

"Not so fast Eiri." The spirit said, gliding around to hover in front of him. "I've been watching you and Shuichi for a while now—"

"Creepy." Yuki cut in sharply, he began to reorganize some already organized papers trying to look busy but stopped as another thought hit him. "Oh god. Please don't say you've fallen in love with me. Because I just don't think it would work out. You aren't even solid." It was hard to tell amidst all the grey, but Yuki thought he saw Shen roll his eyes.

"Don't flatter yourself." He said, gliding down a little to make it appear that he was standing on the ground. "And for your information, I _can_ become solid." To prove his point he did just that, even adding in a little pigmentation as he did. The ghost's hair and eyes both turned a dark brown and his skin became a deceiving healthy—if slightly pale—peachy tone. His clothes had turned a solid white so it was hard to see exactly what he was wearing though Yuki could make out the shadows of ruffles on his shirt and a long cloak type thing around his shoulders. And despite all the white, Yuki had to say the ghost was damn near beautiful.

"See?"

"Fair enough. But you're still not coming anywhere near either Shuichi or myself."

The ghost glared, returning to his wispier form . "Trust me, I've been around for several hundred years and _nothing_ you do sexually interests me in the least. And anyway that is _not _why I'm visible today."

"Then by all means, tell me so I can forget this ever happened."

Shen scowled. "Ok. I was going to be nicer about this but since you're being….well, you. I'll just say it this way: you're an asshole."

Yuki quirked an eyebrow but whether it was because the statement was harsh or whether it was just because this spirit-type-creature actually had the audacity to say such a thing so bluntly was unknown.

"Well thanks. You've certainly given me a lot to think about." Yuki said, more than a little sarcastic. He got up from his chair and walked out into the kitchen, hoping that would be the end of it. Or at least that maybe a cup of coffee would stop the hallucinations.

"See the thing is," The ghost started, floating through the wall dividing the kitchen and Yuki's study, nearly causing Yuki to scream once more. "I don't think you're going to be able to fix this problem on your own."

"I don't have a problem!" Yuki snapped, dumping out the still hot coffee and starting the coffee maker again with unnecessarily violent actions.

"Then why don't you ever tell that adorable lover of yours that you love him?" The spirit questioned and Yuki thought he saw a smirk on his face, but maybe that was just part of the cupboard behind him showing through.

"Maybe because I don't, ever think of that?" Yuki retorted as quickly as he could.

"Right. Why don't you kiss him when he leaves for work in the morning? Or welcome him home with a hug at the very least?"

"Because I. Don't. Want to."

The ghost studied Yuki for a long while before flashing a smoky set of teeth in a triumphant grin. "You're a liar, Eiri Uesegi. And I think I know just what to do with you." Even as he was speaking, the spirits wispy form began to fade into nothingness.

Yuki stared around the room for a while, wondering what in the name of heaven or hell he had just encountered. After a few minutes he was slowly staring to wonder if perhaps he had just fallen asleep or had indeed hallucinated the whole thing. That seemed much more likely than…Yuki stopped his thought, not wanting to even think the word "reality".

"What the fuck was that?"

Yuki shook his head, poured himself a cup of coffee as the pot finished its job and retreated to his study where he managed to immerse himself in his lovely world of romantic bullshit. He was so immersed, in fact, that the knock on his door echoed into one ear and out of the other, not phasing him in the least. So when a voice spoke from almost immediately to the right of him, Yuki tumbled out of his chair in surprise.

"Eiri? Are you ok?" Tohma asked, moving uncertainly toward his brother-in-law.

"No, I'm not! You terrified me!" Yuki exclaimed, quickly shutting his mouth once the words had spilled past his lips. He frowned. That was odd. Usually such a question would be met with a simple "I'm fine." Or just a noncommittal shrug.

The worst thing was that Tohma looked about as perplexed about the bizarre outburst as Yuki felt.

Whatever. He blamed it on the weird morning.

"I just said that the door was open so I let myself in…do you want me to get you anything?"

"A glass of water and a slice of watermelon would be great." Yuki winced openly this time, even as he was talking. Though watermelon and water did indeed sound incredibly refreshing he never would have told Tohma that…normally at least. It was like he was on this weird automatic version of himself, speaking without thinking. Next time, he would stop it. Next time Tohma asked a question he wouldn't answer. He would keep his mouth shut.

"Oookay…" Tohma said slowly. "Do you _have_ watermelon?"

"No. But the store does." The words had flown from his mouth before Yuki even had a chance to think.

The two men stared at each other, each wondering what the hell was going on.

"Eiri. You haven't started any new medication, have you?"

"No, I haven't."

"Then what's wrong with you?"

"No idea. It probably has something to do with—" Yuki's sentence was cut off as a sudden attack of coughs overcame him. "Cats." He finally managed to get out.

"It has something to do with…cats?" The keyboardist repeated almost dumbly—at least as dumbly as Tohma ever got—and for a split second Yuki could have sworn he heard a muffled laugh coming from somewhere to his right.

In any case, enough was enough. He had to get Tohma out of here and figure out what the fuck was wrong with him.

"Look, Tohma," He began, walking towards the front door so if worst came to worst it wouldn't be too difficult to physically throw Tohma out. "I appreciate you dropping by, I really do. But I've had a weird day so far and I'm not quite myself at the moment. Basically it would be really great if you could just leave."

"Eiri I'm not sure I should leave you in this state—"

"I'll be fine, now please, just get out." Yuki said, forcefully pushing his brother-in-law towards the door.

"Alright, alright, I'll go. Just promise to call me if anything gets worse."

"I can promise but I certainly won't keep it." Yuki muttered and he slammed the door and locked it.

As soon as the door closed, maniacal laughter filled the flat. "Well that was a fun little test, wasn't it. To be honest I wasn't entirely sure I had gotten the spell right, haven't actually used this one before."

The same ghost from the "hour of insanity" as Yuki had mentally begun to call it materialized in front of him.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" Yuki hissed, more panicked about what had just happened with Tohma than the fact that some supernatural maybe even extraterrestrial being was lounging—or rather floating—around his apartment.

The ghost came to a halt in front of Yuki, resting his head on misty hands as he smiled maliciously.

"Isn't it obvious? From now on, every word you say will be true at least to your own knowledge—with a few exceptions. You won't be able to tell anyone about me, hence the cat thing. Sorry about that by the way, it was the best I could do on short notice." Yuki just rolled his eyes and walked off.

"Hey! Where're you going?" The ghost called, trailing after him. "I'm trying to explain things to you."

"All I want explained right now is whether or not there's some special ceremony in taking a vow of silence."

Shen laughed beside him. "That's cute, but it won't work. In case you hadn't noticed, you have to answer every question put to you….unless I ask. I think. I'm actually not too clear on the exact rules. We'll just see how it goes, yeah?"

Though the ghost ended his spiel with a grin, Yuki looked anything but amused, in fact he looked rather like he wanted to kill the already-dead ghost before him.

"No we will not just 'see how it goes'!" Yuki snapped. "Take this stupid curse away!"

Shen gave a shrug, completely unfazed by Yuki's less than pleasant reaction.

"No can do. It has to run its course now."

"What do you mean? How long is this going to last?"

"Maybe an hour. Maybe a year. Depends on how good you are, really."

"What? No! This has to be gone before Shuichi gets home!"

"But that'll be the best part."

The spirit started to fade away, grinning at the faintest trace of panic that was starting to set in Yuki's eyes.

"You can't be serious!"

"Oh, I'm quite serious." The ghost said and then was gone.

I'm rather fond of Shen…Too bad he isn't real


	2. Chapter 2

So. I entirely forgot about this story. Wrote this chapter months ago and then forgot to post it. Ooops.

Disclaimer: I own nothing relating to Gravitation—just Shen in this story

-xXx-

It was one of those days for Shuichi. One of those days when all he wanted to do was run home and jump into Yuki's arms.

Ok. So maybe that was most days.

But this time Shuichi was truly in desperate need of a hug. Nothing had seemed to go right during their recordings that day due to a myriad of technical difficulties and instrumental disagreements.

In any case, he could hardly wait for K to release them so he could run (quite literally) home to his beloved.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to Shuichi, 6 o'clock rolled around and the members of Bad Luck were free and before K could even open his mouth to suggest a little overtime, Shuichi was sprinting out the door.

"Yuki! I'm home!" Shuichi shouted as he burst into the apartment.

His announcement received no response.

Not to be deterred in any way (it wasn't as if this was a particularly unusual event), Shuichi began a systematic search of the apartment for the blonde. He finally came across Yuki lying on the bed, eyes closed, and a large pair of soundproof headphones covering his ears.

Shuichi tilted his head in curiosity—Yuki never used headphones, in fact he hardly ever listened to music. Very cautiously, Shuichi approached the bed and pulled off the headphones.

Golden eyes snapped open and a steely glare was leveled at Shuichi.

"Give those back!" Yuki hissed, grabbing for the headphones though Shuichi pulled them just out of his reach.

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to answer any questions you ask me!"

The two men stared at each other, Shuichi, completely perplexed, and Yuki desperately hoping that the pop star would listen to him for once.

"Ok…then don't answer them, it's not like you've ever answered me before when you didn't want to. That doesn't mean you have to listen to music to drown me out. " Shuichi remarked with a slight pout. "What were you listening to anyway?"

Yuki's face turned pink.

"…The Rage Beat." The blonde mumbled, struggling to make the words incomprehensible and refusing to look Shuichi in the eye.

Shuichi expression turned to one of bewilderment.

"You listen to my music?!"

"Yes." Yuki muttered. Shuichi all but squealed, ignoring the resentful tone Yuki had used to answer with, and launched himself onto his boyfriend.

"Hey, Yuki! Do you have a favorite song?" Shuichi asked.

"Yes." Yuki responded even as he was untangling himself from Shuichi so he could vacate the room immediately.

"Really? Which one?"

"The one I was just listening to." Yuki stated roughly, walking determinedly towards the kitchen, wondering if making dinner with large, scary knives would be enough to scare Shuichi. Probably not.

"Why?" Shuichi persisted, tagging along behind.

"Because—" Yuki bit down on his tongue, doing anything to stop himself from answering the question. "Because it reminds me of the night we met." He finally blurted. "I'm not about to say I'm a huge fan of the lyrics, but that song…in a way, that song brought us together. Satisfied?"

Shuichi stared at his boyfriend in complete shock once his brief rant was finished.

"Yuki…" Shuichi ventured uncertainly.

"What is it." Yuki responded with a curtness present in his tone that seemed to be warning Shuichi from asking anything further.

"You're acting very…odd. It's almost like…" Shuichi trailed off, head tilting to the side as he thought.

"Hey Yuki, what's two plus two?"

"Four." Yuki replied automatically, glaring at Shuichi as soon as the word slipped from his lips.

"And what's my favorite candy?"

"Strawberry Pocky."

Shuichi stayed silent for a moment, scrutinizing his boyfriend who was very intently glaring at a wall. Shuichi had figured it out, he was certain of it, now all he could do was wait it out and pray Shen took pity on him sometime soon and removed this blasted curse.

"Yuki…you aren't acting like yourself…what's going on?" Yuki almost rolled his eyes; how could he have possibly thought Shuichi would figure something like this out.

"It's the stupid cat!" Yuki exclaimed. "ALL I CAN SAY IS THE TRUTH!"

The last word rang out into a silence.

"The truth?" Shuichi repeated numbly, still vaguely confused as to what a cat had to do with all of this.

"Yes." Yuki answered, though it was quite clear that he resented having to speak at all.

"I didn't think he would catch on so quickly." A voice broke through, startling both men and causing Shuichi to scream. "Though I suppose that's my fault…I never considered you would have to directly tell him about my little magic trick."

"Magic trick?!" Yuki seethed. "Pulling a rabbit out of an empty hat is a magic trick! This is a fucking curse!"

"Yuki!" Shuichi whispered, not paying any attention to the words being passed between the two. "There's a ghost in the room!"

All Shen did in response was smile and wave.

"Indeed. He's the reason I'm… like this. Shuichi, this is Shen."

"Nice to finally be able to say hello." Shen said with an even wider smile. "And sorry about that…I really should have made it so he couldn't explain what was going on…" Shen continued, murmuring the last part more to himself than anyone else. "Next time I suppose."

"There won't _be_ a next time." Yuki spat, glaring at Shen.

"Obviously not for you!" Shen hastily amended, not liking the look he was getting in the least.

"Damn straight."

Shuichi just continued to gape, wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the specter floating in front of him.

"Yuki…Don't make it angry." Shuichi said softly, not taking his eyes away form Shen for a second.

Yuki just gave a slightly exasperated sigh. "Shuichi, as I said before, this is Shen. He's been spying on us." Yuki supplied quickly. Shen made an annoyed face at Yuki while Shuichi slowly began to inch behind his boyfriend.

"Look, now you've frightened him." Shen chided.

Yuki sighed and stepped away from Shuichi, putting him back in plain view of the ghost. "I promise he's more or less harmless, Shu."

"So uhh…then what do you want?" Shuichi asked timidly. Inching towards the ghost. "I mean I really don't want to sacrifice a goat or anything but…I guess if that's what you wanted…"

Shen crinkled his nose in disgust. "Don't be silly. I don't need anything, not even food! I was doing _you_ a favor by casting this spell."

"Curse." Yuki interjected.

"However," Shen continued, completely ignoring Yuki, "now that you know it's not exactly fair to your lover here that I keep him under this…sp—"

"Curse."

Shen glared at him this time but again, didn't say anything. "Still… I suppose you do deserve something. So you have one question. You can ask him anything you like and get the truth."

"WHAT?!" Yuki cried, outraged beyond belief. "That's not fair at all—"

"I can make it two questions or maybe even three if you don't shut up." The ghost said with a sharp look. Yuki's mouth immediately snapped shut and instead he settled on glaring at the wall once more.

Shuichi, who had stayed uncannily silent throughout the ordeal, finally looked over at the spirit, biting his lip in an ever so slightly nervous manner. "Can I think about it?"

"Yes." Yuki quipped immediately and then turned back to Shen. "There. That's his question right?" Both Shuichi and the ghost glared at Yuki who turned back to his wall with a muttered, "That _so _counted."

"You can take all the time you want. After all, I have eternity." Shuichi grinned and bounced away, presumably to ponder his question in silence.

"That was cruel." Yuki spat, once they were alone.

"No. That was fair. Learn the difference." Yuki didn't say a word, just walked back to his computer and sat down in the chair, making it painfully obvious that he was intending to work in order to calm himself down. "If you're done messing with my life for the moment, then get out."

"Or what, you'll throw me out?" Shen teased, swiping his hand through Yuki's head to prove his point. Yuki just sent him a glare.

"Fine, fine. It'll probably be more interesting to see what kind of question your lover is going to come up with anyway. You know," Shen commented as he was gliding towards the wall. "That kid really is too good for you."

"I know." Yuki muttered quietly.

"Hey," Shen said suddenly, swooping back towards Yuki. "I'm curious, is there anything you want him to ask you?"

"That's none of your business!"

Shen laughed. "Shame, I should have left that curse entirely intact for a while longer…Oh well. But who knows, maybe you'll finally have to tell him you lo—"

"SHUT UP!" Shen's only response was a small, badly muffled snicker as he floated through the wall into the other room.

-xXx-

"So. What are you thinking?" Shen asked, floating next to Shuichi who was sitting on the floor of the living room, leaning back against the couch.

"I don't know. There're so many things I want to know about him, to hear from him. But now that I have this chance, I don't know what to do." Shuichi raised his head and looked at Shen. "If you were in my position, what would you ask?"

Shen looked a little startled by the question but recovered quickly enough. "Nope!" He said with a grin. "That would be cheating!"

"Oh come on! I won't steal it, promise!"

"Too bad. I'm sure you'll think of something eventually."

"Thinking of one isn't the problem. It's the choosing one that I can't do."

Shen smiled sympathetically but could think of nothing more to say.

-xXx-

Yuki, meanwhile, was sitting at his computer, drumming his fingers on the maple desk in front of him. This whole "one question" thing was stressing him out much more than it should. He knew Shuichi was going to end up asking if he loved him and he both hoped that Shuichi would just ask and get it over with and that the time for Shuichi to ask his question would never come.

In truth it wasn't so much that he minded the question—he had been wanting to tell Shuichi how he truly felt for quite some time now, he just hadn't known how. If Shuichi would just ask the question, he would have to tell him, whether he wanted to or not.

"Yuki…"Came a familiar voice from the doorway.

The novelist's fingers immediately ceased in their movements and he turned to look towards his lover.

"…You've got a question then?" He asked, trying his best to sound like he didn't really care about the situation.

"Uh-huh." Shuichi replied with a grin yet made no move to actually ask his question.

"Where's Shen?" Yuki asked, refusing to let Shuichi see the ledge he had him on.

"He said he had something to do and would come back later."

"Then we should probably wait for him." Yuki decided, slightly afraid that the curse wouldn't go away if Shen wasn't present when Shuichi asked his stupid question.

Shuichi shook his head in disagreement.

"Would you rather be a Jedi or a wizard?" The singer blurted suddenly.

"Jedi. I wouldn't want to have to wave a stupid piece of wood whenever I wanted to do something." Yuki answered automatically.

"Really? I was kind of thinking wizard…" Shuichi muttered to himself thoughtfully while Yuki just stared at him with a mixture of surprise, confusion, and pure disbelief on his face.

"_That_ was your question?!" The novelist demanded once he got his voice back.

"Yeah, it's an important fact to know." Shuichi defended, crossing his arms.

"I might have to side with Grumpy over here on this one—you really want that to be your question?" Shen asked, materializing next to Yuki, a similar look of disbelief on his face.

"I already asked it, didn't I?" Shuichi stated stubbornly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Shen regarded Shuichi for a minute when finally a spark of realization flashed through ghosty eyes.

"I guess that's that then."

"You're letting him have that as his question?"

Shen smirked. "What's this? Anyone would think you wanted him to ask something else."

"Don't be stupid." Yuki scoffed. "I just thought you had a very particular goal."

"Can't always get what we want." Shen said with a shrug. "However," Shen continued coming close enough to Yuki that he could whisper and not be overheard by Shuichi. "As I said before, he's too good for you."

Yuki opened his mouth to respond but in the end remained silent.

"Well it was nice to meet you two!" Shen exclaimed. "I wish you the best of luck!" And with that he was gone, out of their lives, presumably forever.

"Thank god that's done." Yuki muttered, sitting back down in his chair in relief, very much wanting to forget this whole fiasco had ever happened.

Shuichi didn't say anything for a long while, appearing oddly lost in thought.

"Don't think too hard, brat." Yuki commented dryly once he'd had enough of Shuichi's strange silence.

"Sorry." Shuichi apologized, snapping out of his daze. "I…I think I'm going to go to bed."

Yuki's eyes narrowed; Shuichi was always quite adamant about eating his proper three meals a day—Yuki was always the one who tended to forgo food for work.

"What about dinner, aren't you hungry?"

"No. I had a long day, I'd rather just sleep."

Yuki looked at Shuichi closely. He _did_ look tired, but skipping meals was still odd. However, he also got the feeling that pressing any further would lead to a conversation he didn't particularly want to have.

"Alright then. Goodnight." Shuichi smiled, mirroring Yuki's sentiments, and stepped out, shutting the door softly behind him.

With Shuichi out of the room, Yuki's mind wandered back through the day's events. Now, in the quiet, comforting and familiar glow of evening in his study, it was impossible to believe anything out of the ordinary had actually happened and in spite of himself, Yuki grinned.

Jedi or wizard? Really? Why hadn't Shuichi asked something more substantial?

The smile dropped off of Yuki's face and before he had time to think about what he was doing, the novelist was on his way to the bedroom with a few questions of his own.

-xXx-

One more chapter! I'll try and post it quickly!


End file.
